However, for the control condition, results indicated that there was a significant difference between the explicit high and low blendedness groups on the harmony versus conflict IAT measure, t=-2.16, p=.034 . Similarly to the overall pattern of results, this result suggested that Mexican American participants who explicitly self-identified as being high in blendedness, implicitly self-identified weaker with harmony compared to those explicitly low in blendedness. Results further indicated that there were no other significant differences among the other three means analyses . In all, Study 2 offered an examination of BII through assessments of thoughts that cannot be consciously controlled. In particular, results indicated that the experimental manipulation did not work across both measures of BII. The overall effects for both the harmony vs. conflict IAT and the blendedness vs. distance IAT showed that the Mexican American participants implicitly self-identified stronger as being harmonious and blended biculturals relative to being more conflicted and distant biculturals. When examining the findings in regards to explicit and implicit BII, a mixed pattern of results begins to emerge. In particular, an explicit attachment to blendedness seems to account for a weaker implicit Self + Harmony association. This argument is corroborated by both correlational analyses which showed that the more Mexican American participants explicitly self-identified as being a blended bicultural,25 liter square pot the less they implicitly self-identified as being a harmonious bicultural and means analyses which indicated that Mexican American participants who explicitly self-identified as being high in blendedness showed an implicitly weaker self-attachment to harmony compared to those explicitly low in blendedness.
What is interesting is that both types of analyses were attenuated by the control group, which was void of any experimental manipulation influence. What is also interesting is the lack of correlations between the harmony vs. conflict IAT and the battery of explicit acculturation and outcomes measures. This was not the case for the blendedness vs. distance IAT. This IAT showed at least two significant correlations. In essence, the more Mexican American participants implicitly self-identified as being a blended bicultural, the less they explicitly prefer the separation strategy and the less they explicitly identify with U.S. culture. Taken together, these results showed the usefulness of using IAT methodology to examine the underlying dynamics of bicultural identity at an implicit level. However, a thorough discussion is needed to explain these data in light of theory which will be addressed in the following section. Study 1 examined differences in the strength of identification with both ethnic and mainstream cultures among multi-generational Mexican American college students using IAT methodology. That is, the extent to which Mexican American participants implicitly endorsed Berry’s four acculturation strategies using a 3 IAT design. In all, the results form Study 1 showed the usefulness of the 3 IATs design to examine implicit acculturation. Given that the Self + Mexican association was stronger than the Self + American association across all three IATs suggests that the Mexican American participants implicitly showed a stronger preference for the separation strategy relative to the other three acculturation strategies. This finding is particularly interesting given that using this type of methodology yields findings not only for an implicit bicultural identity as Devos found, but also for other acculturation strategies such as the separation strategy.
Another goal of Study 1 was to examine the differences between how familiarity and experiences may foster associations between the self and cultures. Recall that perhaps familiarity with the broadly defined cultures itself rather than identification with the cultures accounted for the obtained results found in Devos’s study. Devos studies did not include a battery of acculturation and outcomes measures in order to examine the familiarity versus experiential accounts and provide a more comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the acculturation experiences. However, the present research did undertake such an endeavor. Results from Study 1 showed that all three IAT measures were correlated with a variety of explicit acculturation and outcomes measures. For instance, the less Mexican American participants implicitly self-identified with American culture relative to Korean culture, the less proficient they were in using English, the more proficient they were in using Spanish, the more affirmation, belonging, and commitment was felt towards their Mexican identity, the less acculturative stress they encountered such as linguistic and work, the more they self-identified with their Mexican culture, and the less these participants were open to experiences. Furthermore, the stronger Mexican American participants implicitly self-identified with Mexican culture relative to Korean culture, the older the participants, the less they explicitly self identified with mainstream culture, and the more depressed they felt. In all, these patterns of results seem to go beyond the familiarity account and show that cultural experiences do help foster associative links between the self-concept and culture. Study 2 went beyond the realm of Study 1 and examined the underlying dynamics of bicultural identity at an implicit level. That is, the extent to which Mexican American bicultural college students implicitly negotiates or integrates their dual cultural identities into their self-concept. Overall, results indicated that the experimental manipulation did not work across both measures of BII.
Results for the implicit data further indicated that Mexican American participants implicitly self-identified stronger as being harmonious and blended biculturals relative to being more conflicted and distant biculturals. However, when examining the findings in regards to both explicit and implicit BII, a mixed pattern of results emerges. A very interesting find for Study 2 showed that an explicit attachment to blendedness seems to account for a weaker implicit Self + Harmony association. This argument is corroborated by both correlational and mean analyses. Though these results seem contradictory, they actually illuminate a very impressive and unexpected find. A further examination into these findings suggested that these results are not contradictory, but perhaps reflect a contrast between the implicit and explicit self-concepts among individuals varying in BII. Although the main experimental manipulation failed to work as a priming technique, the IAT may have served as a priming tool to elicit such an effect. In particular, the harmony vs. conflict IAT may have worked as a means of priming the Mexican American bicultural participants by exposing them to words that ignited the negotiation of their dual cultural orientations across two levels of awareness.According to social cognition research on priming, words can also be used to prime individuals in order to elicit a certain response . In the case of Study 2, Mexican American bicultural participants may have been primed with the pre-tested synonym words that represented the harmony vs. conflict dimension of BII and elicited a contrast effect. That is, the words that the bicultural participants were exposed to initiated the negotiation process of their dual cultural identities and subsequently resulted in a discrepancy between their implicit and explicit self-concepts. In essence, the explicit attachment to blendedness seems to account for a weaker implicit Self + Harmony association. Correlational analyses showed that the more Mexican American participants explicitly self-identified as being a blended bicultural, the less they implicitly self-identified as being a harmonious bicultural and means analyses further indicated that Mexican American participants who explicitly self-identified as being high in blendedness showed an implicitly weaker self-attachment to harmony compared to those explicitly low in blendedness. It is important to note that both of these analyses were attenuated by the control condition, which was void of the experimental manipulation influence . What was also interesting is the lack of correlations between the harmony vs. conflict IAT and the battery of explicit acculturation and outcomes measures. Finally,gallon pot when comparing the means of the harmony vs. conflict IAT to the blendedness vs. distance IAT, results suggested that Mexican American participants implicitly showed a significantly stronger self-attachment to harmony relative to the self + blendedness association. Social cognition literature provides some possible explanations for understanding why contrast effects occur. If a prime is perceived as incompatible with the target’s self concept then contrast effects emerge . For instance, priming participants with Albert Einstein which is often viewed as extremely different from most peoples’ self-concept led participants to fewer correct answers on a knowledge test versus being primed with a professor which led to more correct answers on the same test . In all, primes that are considered different from and inconsistent with the target’s self-concept in turn lead to contrast effects .
This literature is consistent with the three major implications of the self-concept. First, information about the self concept is processed faster and more efficiently, especially consistent information . Second, one retrieves and remembers information that is relevant to one’s self-concept. Third, one will tend to resist information in the environment that is inconsistent with one’s self-concept . Results from Study 2 suggest that any incoming cultural information that is in congruent with the biculturals self-concept may result in a contrast effect. When considering the influx of cultural information that affects a biculturals self-concept, it is important to remember the underlying mental processes in which cultural information is processed. Perhaps the incoming cultural information led the Mexican American biculturals to engage in the negotiation of their two cultural orientations at two distinct levels of awareness. Research on dual-systems model would support this notion. According to research on dual-systems model , cultural information can be processed implicitly, impulsively or associative versus explicitly, reflective, or propositionally. Cultural information that is processed implicitly or associatively is believed to represent the implicit self-concept and process information by the spread of activation between concepts that are associatively linked. The implicit self-concept reflects automatic responses which result from the particular associations that are triggered automatically when a person encounters a relevant stimulus . On the other hand, cultural information that is processed in the form of propositions is believed to represent the explicit self-concept and process information through introspection. The explicit self concept is best considered as evaluative judgments about the self-concept which stem from the processes of propositional reasoning . There are several important aspects of associative processes that underlie the implicit self-concept which are important to consider. First, pattern activation refers to the notion that the activation of particular associations in memory is dependent on the comparative fit between: 1) the preexisting structure of associations in memory and 2) the particular set of external input stimuli . In the case of Study 2, the comparative fit between the external stimuli and the implicit self-concept may have been strong enough to trigger the negotiation process between the participant’s dual cultural identities. Second, associative evaluations are best characterized as automatic affective reactions when a person encounters a relevant stimulus . Recall that the harmony vs. conflict dimension of BII is affect driven, thus is makes sense that it served as a relevant stimulus to activate the negotiation process in the participant’s implicit self concept. Third, associative processes are void of truth values, unlike propositioning reasoning, which means that they are often not personally endorsed by the individual . Therefore, if implicit evaluations can be activated regardless of whether a person considers these evaluations as accurate or not, then it is quite possible for inconsistencies to exists between the implicit and explicit self-concepts. In all, research on the dual-systems model helps to explain the obtained results found in Study 2. In particular, individuals varying in BII were exposed to cultural information that ignited the negotiation process of their dual cultural orientations within the self-concept, thus creating a contrast effect between their implicit and explicit self concepts. Collectively, the results of Study 2 and the research on culture, the self concept, and dual-systems model, have important theoretical implications for BII. Recall that BII is an individual difference variable that underlies the dynamics of bicultural identification. Research on BII theory showed that cultural harmony is more affect driven and interpersonal component of the bicultural experience, whereas cultural blendeness captures the more perceptual and performance related aspects of the bicultural experience. Thus, when a bicultural individual high on cultural blendedness perceives his or her self as apart of a combined culture, his/her self-concept is placed in proximity to both cultures and orientations . On the other hand, when a bicultural individual high on cultural harmony states that his/her ethnic and mainstream cultural identities are quite compatible, he or she is expressing rapport and compatibility between each cultural orientation and membership . To advance BII theory, the inherent properties that characterize each pair of BII dimensions can be further understood in regards to the dual-systems model. That is, the harmony vs. conflict dimension of BII tends to capture elements of the implicit self concept of the bicultural experience.